Eight weeks in hell
by ex-LongLongHair
Summary: Like it says-8 weeks in hell. But I've only got the first day up. Slow, aren't I? Well, read it anyway. Come on, you know you want to. Especially since you have no idea how I will torture you if you flick your eyes over this summary, move on to the next o
1. Prologue

A/N: I'm going to try and make this author's note asap-as short as possible

A/N: I'm going to try and make this author's note asap-as short as possible. This is going to be based on real life-me and my friends, actually. But don't tell them that, I'm trying to keep this a secret. It'll be extremely interesting. So, here goes the prologue.

Eight Weeks in Hell: Life in Hogsmeade

Harry couldn't believe it. Neither could anybody else. Dumbledore had finally agreed to the "living independently" program the board of directors was pushing. It involved living eight weeks in a house with seven or eight other people, cooking and cleaning for themselves, while they attended classes in a nearby building. The whole school was in an uproar.

Hermione just shrugged and went on with reading 'Advanced Transfiguration for the Modern Wizard'. "I don't see why everyone's making such a big fuss. We're already living away from home. Come on, this is a boarding school! We'll only have to add cooking for ourselves to the list-we already practically have to do our own laundry." She said to no one in particular.

Ron on the other hand, was completely terrified. "How could they do this to us? I can't even toast my own bread!" he stared at Harry with wide eyes, panic evident as he grabbed Harry by the arms as if his life depended on it.

"Don't worry, Ron. We'll all be fine." Harry said soothingly as he patted Ron on the arm.

"But-but-but we might not be together!" Ron sputtered, going pale as he voiced one of his many worries.

"We'll be in the same house, don't worry. Hermione and I will take care of you." Harry said, and Hermione, still with he nose stuck in the book, nodded in agreement. She shut it and looked up. "In fact, I might even go as far as to say that you and Harry will be in the same room." She added. "Or if not, we can always go to Dumbledore and ask whether we can change rooms." Hermione frowned at that, as if she disapproved. "Never mind." She said dismissively, and went back to reading.

Ron just stared at her as if she was crazy, brushing off eight weeks-alone-no teachers- in Hogsmeade as if it were nothing.

***

"And now, the first group of students to go to Hogsmeade will be announced." Dumbledore said, after many hours of anticipation. Everyone was on tenterhooks since they put their housing preferences in a few weeks ago. Some students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons had stayed behind, liking Hogwarts, and they too were eager to find out whether they were in the first contingent.

"I will announce the students according to their bedrooms; no changes can be made to this. Harry Potter and Fred Weasley." Harry glanced at Fred and grinned. This was going to be interesting. Ron, on the other hand, sat there in disbelief-a) because there would be no changes as to bedrooms, b) he wasn't in the same room as Harry. Dumbledore continued on, oblivious to the fact that one particular student had turned a pale shade of green. "Hermione Granger and George Weasley." George smiled fondly at Hermione as she looked up from her book. She smiled back, and patted Ron on the shoulder consolingly. "Ron Weasley and Fleur Delacour." There were squeals of disappointment from the Ravenclaw table-it appeared that some of Fleur's friends had counted on her being in their rooms. Ron, formerly pale green, had turned bright red. "I'm in a room with…Fleur?" he whispered, as his eyes became glazed. Only Harry and Hermione, who were sitting on either side of him prevented Ron from keeling over. "And last, but not least, Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang and…" he glanced up and looked around. There seemed to be a lot going on at the Gryffindor table-but he pushed that to the back of his mind. "…Draco Malfoy. Now, even I sometimes doubt the wisdom of these choices, but I did not make them-the Sorting Hat did." He finished, and sat back to watch the scene that unfolded.

At the Slytherin table, things were much the same. Draco was just sitting there, perhaps a little more stiffly than usual, Pansy was still fawning over him, and Crabbe and Goyle were their usual selves-huge, and dumb. Draco doubted they even comprehended what was going on-he, Draco Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy fortune, wasgoing to be stuck for _eight_ _whole weeks_ in a house full of Gryffindors-and then there was Fleur.

Fred and George, on either side of Ginny, were both trying to cheer the poor girl up, fending off Katie and Angelina, who were both telling them not to get up to mischief with any of the girls. Ginny, on the other hand, was completely miserable. She knew Harry liked Cho, and that Draco hated herself, as well as everyone else in their house. Thinking she would have a terrible time, she burst into tears. All heads at the Gryffindor table turned to her, surprised, except for Nearly Headless Nick. His head just sort of tilted to the side. Feeling the attention on her, she abruptly pushed back her chair and ran out of the Great Hall.

Silence ensued for the next few minutes, then slowly the level of chatter returned to its usual amount. Harry, Ron and Hermione exited quickly after Ginny, Ron not quite recovered yet, still a little stiff, but otherwise okay.

"I hope she's okay." Hermione said worriedly.

"She'll be fine." Ron managed to squeeze out.

"Well, at least she's in the same house as the rest of us." Harry pointed out.

"But Cho? And Draco?" Hermione asked him. "It'd be too much for me." She admitted.

"Whatever. I think I need to lie down." Ron said with difficultly.

They hurried the rest of the way up to the Gryffindor tower to put Ron to bed, then Harry and Hermione went to find Ginny. Eventually, Hermione found her in Moaning Myrtle's toilets.

"Come in, Harry, it's all clear." Hermione said after a few minutes' consultation with Ginny.

He entered cautiously. It looked a lot better than it did back in his 2nd year, now it was all cleaned up. He looked at the row of stalls. The second one from the end was shut.

"Ahem." Harry cleared his throat. "Uh, Ginny, are you okay in there?"

"Go away! I don't need either of you! Just leave me in peace! I should never have signed up for this Hogsmeade thing!" she shouted, sobbing.

Hermione sighed. "Alright, Ginny. We'll leave you alone. But if you do need anything, just ask, okay?"

"Mmmhmm." Ginny reluctantly agreed, as she wiped her tears.

"We'll be going now-I have to read up on lightening charms so I can carry all my books down." Hermione said, and walked out.

"Bye, Ginny. See you later." Harry said quietly, and followed Hermione.

Ginny was left alone again. Well, not quite. There was always Moaning Myrtle, but she had gone somewhere. She sighed. It was pretty dismal in here, she thought. So she unlocked the door, came out of the toilets and slowly walked back up to the Gryffindor tower. Draco Malfoy and Cho Chang. She'd be sharing a room with them. Eight weeks in hell.

A/N: Well, how about that? Some of this didn't really happen, but hey, it makes for an interesting story. So come now, and review. If no one wants to read this, then I suppose I won't write it while I'm there-more time to write other fanfic…(Mwahahaha)

And another thing-posting fanfic up there might not be allowed, so I might get someone else to post it, or I might just wait until I come back. Either way, there'll be a long silence from me. Okay?


	2. The first day

A/N: Well, I'm back

A/N: Well, I'm back. So here's the next part. Enjoy while you can.

Eight weeks in hell-the first day

The day had finally come. The day to leave. The day to go to Hogsmeade. Ginny was terrified. Ron couldn't care less. Cho was still, well, mourning over Cedric, and that didn't help. Draco was complaining about everything-and then some. Fred and George were chucking lollies out the window of the bus, to parents and siblings outside. Harry was extremely happy-no more Dursleys for an extended period of time. Hermione wasn't too happy-no REAL classes for eight weeks. "My grades will fall!" she had exclaimed when her parents told her to have fun.

The bus trip was long. Unnecessarily long, considering Hogsmeade was only 30 minutes away from Hogwarts. But then, they weren't exactly going to Hogsmeade…

"The music on this thing is terrible!" Draco complained, "I want to hear the Spice Girls!" Draco, of course, didn't quite know what they were-only that they were Muggles, and on this whole Hogsmeade stint they were supposed to be living like Muggles.

"Malfoy, we are NOT listening to the Spice Girls. Now go and read your magazines." Harry said, annoyed, as he went back to reading yet another Quidditch book.

Eventually, after travelling on an extremely bumpy road for about 20 minutes, the bus stopped.

"Are we here?" Draco asked, impatient to sit on an unmoving chair and have a nice, long drink.

One of the teachers at the front of the bus got up. "Now, everyone. Quiet!" she said. "Make sure you take everything out of the bus. You can't leave anything behind."

Hermione, already up with all her stuff, gave her seat a quick once-over again. Then she checked everybody else's seats. "Harry, you left this string behind!" she called. "Malfoy, your magazine." Hermione picked up a Dolly magazine and waved it around. "Is this yours, Cho?" Cho turned red and stuffed the magazine in her bag.

Finally, everyone was out of the bus. It started to rain. "Damn!" Ron muttered, "My japara is at the bottom of my bag!" Hermione got out her wand, and started to say a spell.

"Miss Granger, please get rid of that wand!" one of the teachers said. Hermione looked around guiltily, and slid her wand back into her pocket. "Sorry Ron, you'll have to get it out yourself. Anyway, it serves you right for putting it there." She turned around to look for everyone else-Harry had his stuff all over the ground, Ginny was putting her excess baggage in the troopie, and Fred, George, Cho and Fleur were all standing off to one side, talking. There were a whole lot of other witches and wizards, too. Hermione wondered where they'd come from. Draco was also at the troopie, whining to the driver, trying to convince her to let him ride in it.

"No, Mr Malfoy, you'll have to travel with the rest of them." The driver said. "Now put your japara on because you'll be soaked." Draco sighed and pulled his japara out-it was a school one.

"It stinks!" he wrinkled his nose. "I'm not wearing that!"

Meanwhile, everyone was wondering where they were-they had been told they were going to be living in Hogsmeade in a Muggle environment. It then occurred to Hermione that Hogsmeade was a totally wizarding community. So they would be going somewhere else then, somewhere 8 hours away from Hogwarts.

"Attention!" one of the teachers said. "You're going to walk into Marshmeade now. Be careful of slippery rocks and things like that."

"Ahh." Hermione said to herself. "That's what this place is called. I _knew_ we were going to Hogsmeade!"

Ron sighed. "Do we really have to?" he whispered to Hermione.

"Yes. Now come on, let's go." She said back, and set off.

Soon Ron's long legs outstripped Hermione, and she was left with Ginny to walk at the back of the procession that was walking the 5 kilometres into Marshmeade.

They all sighed in relief when they saw the big gate and the shed. A number of shrieks sounded from some of the other witches-the ones with the heavy makeup and skimpy robes, Hermione thought.

It was then they were told they still had a bit to go before they got to the village.

"Great. My feet are sore and I'm tired." Hermione said, but picked up her bag again and kept going. Finally, after going down a huge hill, over a bridge (20km/hour, no bicycles) and up another hill, they got to the village. It looked spectacularly uninteresting, and the design was, well…interesting.

Going through a small gate in a fence, they came to what Hermione assumed to be the amphitheatre. It had tall poles encircling it, with a small stage at the bottom and tiered seating. The only problem was that it was all outside. Harry plonked himself down on a seat, not caring if there was mud on it or not. Cho, Draco and Fleur were more careful. Fred and George sat together, laughing the whole time and patting the dogs that were there. Hermione sat next to Harry, seeing not much room anywhere else. Ginny sat by herself to one side, not knowing where to go. Ron decided to go sit next to Fleur, and was welcomed heartily.

They were talked to by a man named Mr McNeil, and they were told five very important rules, which they discovered later, were very easy to break.

They were: Take off your shoes before entering buildings and put them back on again when you got out.

Don't go out of the village after dark

Don't use magic-under _any_ circumstances

Don't go out of the boundaries without a teacher, and

Stay in your house after 9 pm.

After being introduced to the rest of the teachers, of whom there were many, and the dogs, they were told to find their houses. Seeing as there were only 3 houses, it wasn't too hard. Then came the task of getting their stuff unpacked.

"Ginny, your bags are over here!" George called as he dragged two of his over to their house. "Why did I bring so many of these damn things?" he asked himself. Fred, who was also heaving a bag towards their house, dug his elbow into George's side. "Just don't tell 'em about the Dungbombs." He whispered, and continued.

"Oh…right." George said, puzzled. For some reason, he had eight big bags, while Fred only had 5. He suspected it was something to do with that, but shrugged it off and kept moving-it was getting dark.

They all assembled for dinner at the MWC. Draco took one look at it and called it the mostly weird centre. There was one thing he did like about it though-there were lit fires.

Dinner was lasagne, salad and garlic bread. Draco complained loudly about not getting enough food, and then didn't finish his serve. Ron was ravenous but for some strange reason, wouldn't eat salad. Fred had turned vegetarian over the holidays; he had the vegetarian option, which frankly looked like mush.

After dinner, everyone went back to their houses and continued to settle in. They were told to be in bed at 9:15, and lights out was at 9:30.

Hermione was the only one brave enough to have a shower that night. It was freezing, but "invigorating" as she put it. Even Harry, who feared nothing much but fear itself, wouldn't try it out.

They were all in bed at the correct time, writing journals and diaries. When the teachers came around, they turned out the lights. Everyone slept peacefully that night. However, things weren't so peaceful after that first night.

A/N: I'll leave you with your thoughts and the review box below now. J


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